


Orientation

by Vav



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Implied Sexual Content, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-27
Updated: 2015-08-27
Packaged: 2018-04-17 11:51:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4665540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vav/pseuds/Vav
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lawrence isn't so jazzed about starting college. Will he meet someone who totally rocks his world? Yes. Yes, he will.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Orientation

**Author's Note:**

> Before you start talkin' smack: I changed Joel's university + major to fulfill an idea (geeky Lawrence x theatre Joel) that I saw on tumblr. Keep in mind: this is an AU. I took that idea and mangled it with my little gremlin hands until I produced this piece of literature that is very loosely based off of that idea and may be somewhat lackluster, seeing as it was written in about two hours (total). If you made it past that horrible description, I hope you enjoy this work, and if you do, leave some kudos or a comment! <3

Lawrence was about excited as he could be for college. He was a little tired of being told it’d be “the best four years of his life” and how many new, lifelong friends he was going to make. Sure, that was great and all, but he kind of just wanted to get his degree and be done with it. He wasn’t looking forward to sharing a place with two random dudes, and he was especially dreading the two-day, mid-summer orientation session his parents were forcing him into.

First of all, his group leader was much too peppy. Lawrence wasn’t even fully awake on his second cup of coffee at the nine o’clock check-in. This guy was completely amped and ready to go. Once Lawrence’s group was complete, the fresh-faced man introduced himself. Lawrence was a bit distracted by his ridiculous cactus socks, but managed to tune into most of the introduction.

“Good morning, little Comets, and welcome to UT Dallas!” he announced to the gaggle of teenagers before him. He claimed a spot atop a concrete bench so everyone could see him clearly. A few girls cheered back at him and he shot some finger guns at them. “My name is Joel Rubin, and I’m a third-year Art and Performance major here at UT. I’m stoked to be your guys’ orientation leader for the next two days! You’re gonna see a lot and learn a lot, so don’t get discouraged if you find yourself a little bit overwhelmed.”

The only things that made this guy look anything like an adult were his stubble and his orientation polo. Other than that, his eyes were jubilant, his frame was small, and his taste in socks was absolutely dreadful. Lawrence may have mistaken him for someone his age if they were in any other situation.

“I’m here to help you guys become accustomed to the campus and all it has to offer, so we’re gonna get started with a presentation,” Joel explained, pausing for dramatic effect after the clause. “All the way across campus!” A few people groaned around Lawrence, who just smirked, arms folded across his chest. “I know, I know. This group’s schedule kinda got boned, but we’re gonna make the most of it. So, just follow me, and ask any questions that you have right now. We’ll regroup afterward and do some icebreakers, but talk to me now if you want!”

Lawrence didn’t want to talk to him now. Hell, he would be perfectly fine with not talking to him ever. He seemed to be the polar opposite of Lawrence, the only thing they had in common being the fact that they got into this school. He didn’t see the point in getting chummy with someone who wouldn’t remember his name in a few days. They walked in a tight herd, most other people in the group conversing with one another. Lawrence didn’t talk to them. He kept his hands at his sides and trekked along the outside of the pack.

“Groups not your thing?” a voice asked from next to Lawrence in the auditorium. He turned his head to the side and realized Joel had taken the empty seat beside him, along the aisle. Lawrence pushed his glasses up and cleared his throat. Joel still had that sparkle in his eyes, though his voice had diminuendoed from a roar to a murmur.

“Sometimes,” Lawrence shrugged. He squared his shoulders to Joel and made eye contact. “I like people, but not in forced settings. I’m assuming I’ll make friends naturally, preferably within my college, at least.” Joel nodded in understanding. Lawrence had been grouped with a lot of liberal arts students, presumably on accident. Maybe he would have been warmer in a group full of engineers and programmers. Joel crossed one Bermuda short-clad leg over the other and examined his fingernails.

“That’s understandable,” the group leader continued to nod. “But, I think you should also be open to meeting people regardless of their major.” Lawrence frowned in contemplation and tilted his head. Joel filled the silence by sticking his hand out in the gap between the two. “Hi, I’m Joel. Art and Performance major.” He smiled as Lawrence accepted the hand shake.

“Lawrence. Computer Science,” Lawrence greeted neutrally.

“See? You’re already meeting people outside of what you know,” Joel smiled triumphantly, returning his hand to his lap to clasp the other. “But, that was probably a mistake, because you’re not gonna meet anyone cooler than me in this group, so why bother? Or, if you do, you can’t tell me because then my life will be in shambles.” Lawrence let out a chuckle, and then the lights in the auditorium dimmed, cueing the presenters onstage.

Lawrence wasn’t proud of it, but he was late the next morning. As one of the only locals in his group, he had to face the morning traffic on the way to the campus instead of having the pleasure of rolling out of bed in a temporary dorm room just minutes away from where his group was meeting. He walked as quickly as he could from the parking lot, hoping that they hadn’t embarked on their tour yet. 

“There he is! See, I told you guys he would show,” Joel called from the top of a picnic table. He was wearing the same polo, but with a different pair of Bermuda shorts, and…yep, even more horrendous socks. This time, they were forest green and had cows printed all over them. Lawrence wondered if this guy had any friends. Real friends wouldn’t let him buy socks like those.

“Traffic,” Lawrence muttered, finally catching his breath as he stood with several pairs of eyes on him.

“No worries, all the groups were a bit late to start today,” Joel commented reassuringly. He then shouted something that Lawrence didn’t quite catch and hopped down from the table. Lawrence wondered if that hurt. Those boat shoes couldn’t possibly have had very good shock absorption. 

Joel was a very enthusiastic tour guide. They didn’t get much of a taste of it the day before due to the mass amounts of presentations and icebreaker games, but he really knew how to hold everyone’s attention. He seemed to be an expert at both walking backwards and talking exceptionally fast without needing water too often. Lawrence admired that. He didn’t think he was coordinated enough to do both at the same time. But, that’s what orientation training was for, he supposed.

-

They kept in touch after orientation and through the beginning of the school year. This shocked Lawrence. When he wrote down his phone number on the clipboard, he had no idea that Joel would text him on a semi-daily basis. It started out with school-related topics, then devolved (maybe evolved) into conversations about Broadway musicals and Lawrence’s work as a stagehand that one time for that one show his junior year. His high school friends always teased him about that, but Joel didn’t.

Joel turned out to be his dorm advisor, and it was then that Lawrence realized he was friends with a guy who was way too involved in this school. Yeah, friends. He didn’t want to admit it, but sometimes he would rather talk to Joel than either of the guys he shared an apartment with. He was so very grateful for having his own room. 

Sometimes Joel would hang out on the foot of the bed while Lawrence sat in his desk chair and typed away at nothing in particular. Joel wasn’t really supposed to linger in the dorm rooms, but he made an exception for Lawrence, usually in the morning or after he was done with his shift in the commons at night. He admired Lawrence’s room and found it the most relaxing place to be after dealing with rowdy freshmen all day or week. He would cross his legs and grab his knees and rock back and forth while they talked about school and movies and even video games from time to time.

Lawrence didn’t know that Joel liked boys until they got drunk off of cheap wine one night in Joel’s bedroom. Joel’s dorm-mates were at a party off campus, and it was a few days after his twenty-first birthday, so they made the most out of it. They drank casually from red, plastic cups and sat on the floor of Joel’s room as the evening chill set in. It was a pretty trashy situation, but Joel’s gelled curls and dress shirt made the occasion all the more formal. Lawrence, however, was in his typical outfit consisting of a t-shirt, loose jeans, and skate shoes. It got the job done.

“You have a girlfriend yet?” Joel inquired as he poured some more alcohol into Lawrence’s cup. Joel was further gone than Lawrence, who was hardly feeling the buzz. It felt good, though. Lawrence had only been to one party since school began, and he stayed for one beer before walking back to his dorm. Lawrence shook his head at the question.

“Nah, you?” he asked in return, raising his eyebrows and taking a sip. Joel pursed his lips and shook his head as well.

“Dallas isn’t really my scene,” Joel began to explain. “As far as dating goes, at least.”   
“What, too conservative? Too dumb?” Lawrence smirked and pushed his glasses back up his nose. Joel gave him an unconvincing smile and shrugged one shoulder uncomfortably.

“No. Kinda. I don’t know,” he said into his half-filled cup. Lawrence barely caught it. “You should come to the improv show on Wednesday. I’ll be in it.” They talked more about Joel’s work in the theatre department, then somehow got onto the topic of pet peeves and what they hated most about people. Lawrence almost had wine coming out of his nose a few times. They tried to pick the lock to one of Joel’s roommates bedrooms to access his weed, and flopped down in the hallway when their efforts were fruitless. They went back to drinking shortly after their episode.

“If you guys are dorm advisors, why do you have weed in here?” Lawrence questioned, throwing a side-eyed glance at his friend.

“No one’s gonna think to bust the people who are s’posed to bust other people for weed,” Joel stated simply, with only a few stammers thrown in the mix. “Why’re you complaining, Tex? I’m your drug dealer.”

“That’s false, but okay,” Lawrence shrugged, a satisfied smile on his face. They fell into comfortable banter that evened back out to conversation, finishing off one bottle and diving into another.

“Y’member when I said I couldn’t date anyone here?” Joel proposed a while later, after he decided it was too hot inside and opened a window, along with a few buttons on his shirt. He tied his tie around his head like a bandana, ignoring Lawrence’s look of judgment. Lawrence hummed and nodded in response to the question. “S’cuz I’m gay. But, shhhhhh, you can’t tell anyone.” Lawrence’s lips were smushed awkwardly by Joel’s pointer finger. “Not even yourself.”

“But you just told me,” Lawrence countered, his cheeks turning pink without his permission. He hated involuntary bodily functions. Joel burst out laughing, and Lawrence joined in. “We’d probably have more luck in Austin.” Oh, yeah, that was also the night Lawrence told Joel he was kinda into dudes, too. He wasn’t sure if he had told him because he was half past tipsy, or if he wanted to comfort Joel.

“We?” Drunk Joel drawled out. The monosyllabic word seemed to take ages to fall out of his mouth. “S’cuz people are too stupid here for you, right, Mr. Smartypoops?”

“No, I like guys,” Lawrence shrugged, realizing it was better just to put it out there than to hold it in. “And girls. Everyone, really.” Joel slapped his own knee and guffawed.

“Call the governor! Looks like we wrangled ourselves a pansexual!” Joel announced in his best hillbilly voice (which probably wouldn’t have been any better sober), sticking his top teeth out and putting emphasis on the second syllable in the last word. It was horrible, yet it had Lawrence in stitches, nearly spilling his wine on Joel’s carpet.

-

“You’re such a baby,” Joel spoke with a roll of the eyes. He had his duffel bag next to him on the ground and his hands stuffed in the pockets of his peacoat. It was cold as balls outside, and Lawrence was prolonging the torture. Lawrence’s shitty car probably wouldn’t start when he tried to leave the curb, so Joel was trying to get inside the airport as quickly as possible so that he wouldn’t have to be associated with the mess that was bound to be going on outside.

“It’s your fault for letting me leech onto you like a parasite all semester,” Lawrence retorted. “Now I have separation anxiety.”

“It’s one week!” Joel chuckled. “I already missed Hanukkah. My mom will have a heart attack if I don’t get to spend every day with her as we ignore your bullshit Christian holiday! Let me catch my flight; my mom is dying, Sonntag.” Lawrence rubbed his gloveless hands together and nodded reluctantly, sulking further back against the side of his car until Joel held his arms out for a hug, to which Lawrence obliged. Joel caught his cheek with a kiss before resting his head on the taller man’s shoulder. Lawrence froze, partially because of the snow and partially because of that action. They had always been friendly, which meant lots of hugs and arms around shoulders and the occasional hand-holding on the way home from parties, but that was different. “What, a guy can’t kiss his best friend on the cheek? That’s how they do it in Europe!” 

Joel was mostly joking, but his own boldness caught him by surprise. Lawrence was angry at himself for seizing up at such a harmless gesture, and at Joel for noticing. Joel brought his face in front of Lawrence’s and tilted his head with a frown. It wasn’t a sad frown, but rather a thoughtful one. Once he had thought enough, he glanced between Lawrence’s glasses-less eyes and pink, parted lips. And once he had thought even more, he licked his lips and pressed his mouth to Lawrence’s briefly, closing his eyes tight. Lawrence was timid, but kissed back, dry lips barely gliding against Joel’s moistened ones. Joel pulled away much too soon for Lawrence’s taste, but he did have a flight to catch. He met Lawrence’s eyes and they exchanged smiles as Joel backed off and grabbed his bag.

“Chew on that,” Joel threw over his shoulder as he trotted into the warmth of the airport, leaving Lawrence grinning like an idiot out in the light snow. Lawrence grinned like an idiot on the drive back to campus, during his Skype call with Joel the day after Christmas, and while he drunk texted Joel on New Year’s Eve-Eve.

-

“Good morning, and welcome to UT Dallas!” Joel shouted to yet another group of incoming freshmen. “My name’s Joel Rubin, and I’m a fourth-year Art & Performance major.”

“And I’m Lawrence Sonntag, a second-year Computer Science major,” Lawrence announced with about half as much enthusiasm as Joel had. Joel stood atop the same concrete bench as the year before, but this time with his hands on Lawrence’s shoulders.

“Lawrence was in my orientation group last year, and now we’re the best of friends,” Joel explained. “Isn’t that right, Larr?” Lawrence smiled at the nickname. Joel was the only one who called him that.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Lawrence said quickly, feigning annoyance with his co-leader. “We’re here to give y’all a little taste of what this school has to offer. Joel and I are both pretty involved in the school, so we’re excited to share some experiences with you guys as the days go on.”

They made a great team. Lawrence supplied the freshmen with accurate statistics and history on some programs while Joel gushed about how amazing everything was. They picked up where the other left off, and filled in any information that the other had forgotten. Lawrence fielded questions, and Joel made smalltalk with some stragglers who couldn’t find anyone else to talk to. Things ran as smooth as ever, and the pair was content as they sat down on a small lawn for lunch.

“I wonder which freshman I’m gonna fall in love with this time around,” Joel sighed, crossing his legs and unzipping his lunchbox. He fished out a sandwich, disregarding Lawrence’s stunned expression. He began undoing the cling wrap that he haphazardly dressed the sandwich in that morning and finally looked up at Lawrence. Lawrence was staring at him, had been staring at him since his hand touched the zipper. “What, you thought I didn’t love you?”

“I didn’t know that you did,” Lawrence admitted. It was kind of hard to be sure when Joel had never, you know, fucking said it before. Joel took a small bite of his sandwich and nodded his head casually. Lawrence nodded back before shrugging and diving into his own lunch. Inner-Lawrence was both jumping for joy and cackling like a madman. Joel looked at Lawrence expectantly, but a girl from their group waltzed over to them with an expression that had to have some questions behind it. She asked about what they’d be doing the rest of the day and if she should change into more comfortable shoes and where the nearest drinking fountain was so she could fill up her water bottle. Lawrence answered all of her inquiries with a polite smile that drove Joel insane. 

Was he going to say anything back? Joel just put his heart on his fucking sleeve, albeit in an absurdly smug way that he expected from Lawrence, not himself. If they were in any other setting, particularly while alone, he might have grabbed Lawrence’s hands, looked him in the eye, and recited some mushy speech explaining why he loved him. But that’s not what they were working with. They were in the summer heat, sitting on itchy grass in plain sight of a bunch of other people. Joel wanted Lawrence to know that he loved him and he wanted him to know right then and there. Maybe Lawrence wasn’t sure what he felt, or didn’t feel comfortable saying it out loud in that moment. Maybe Lawrence didn’t love Joel, and was just waiting for the right time to tell him, which definitely wasn’t during freshman orientation. 

“It’s not as hot as I expected it to be today, so that’s good,” Lawrence commented, examining his apple before taking another bite. Joel’s face fell, but Lawrence didn’t notice, or didn’t care. He decided to push the matter to the back of his brain, settling on the possibility that Lawrence didn’t really know how to properly reply to such a statement, given his lack of experience with serious relationships. They talked about the weather some more, then what activities they would do with their groups in the little free time they had that evening after dinner.

It was time to head to the meeting point for their group. Joel had spent most of the break laying in the grass with his head in Lawrence’s lap. Lawrence talked about which types of fruit pissed him off the most, and Joel hummed in response when necessary. Joel felt extremely mellowed out, and a little sad, but tried to amp himself up before the freshmen returned. Both Joel and Lawrence stood atop a bench, with Lawrence holding the paper with their group number on it up in the air. When they saw the first few students of their group walking toward them, Lawrence turned to Joel, hiding his face behind his clipboard.

“Do you think I don’t love you?” Lawrence murmured gently, just loud enough for Joel to hear. Joel’s head whipped around to look at Lawrence, who was wearing a complacent smile that Joel totally deserved. “Because I do.” Lawrence lowered the clipboard and faced the students, counting them as they arrived in front of him. Joel was fucking bouncing in place, and finally jumped down to jog around the group and count out every single person with a tap on the shoulder. The smile that was stuck on Joel’s face for the rest of the day was worth the thirty minutes of torture that Lawrence felt compelled to put him through. Joel sang and danced (sometimes at inappropriate times) and talked to every single person in the group whether they liked it or not. And you bet your sweet ass that Lawrence had Joel moaning how much he loved him that night to make up for the blindside that was his afternoon confession.


End file.
